Camera attachment



April 25, 1944. P 1:'l SPERRY ET AL 2,347,520

CAMERA ATTACHMENT Filed NOV. 24, 1941 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 P. F. sPERRY ET A1. 2,347,520

CAMERA ATTACHMENT April 2s, i944.

Filed Nov. 24, 1941 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 P. F. SPERRY Ei' Al.

CAMERA ATTACHMENT Filed NOV. 24, 1941 April 25, 1944.

3 Sheets-Sheec 5 Patented Apr. 25, 1944 UNITED STES einen .ATNT SENCE.

CAMERA ATTACHMENT Philmore F. Sperry,

Philip F. Briskin, and .lack

Appiica-ticn November 24, 1941, Serial No. 420,222

5 Claims.

The present 'invention relates to .a camera attachment adapted to produce a simulation of fade-in 4or fade-out at the beginning or end of a certain :series of pictures. The attachment is of such nature that it is readily operable from the camera drive mechanism at the will of the operator. The nature of the attachment is such also that it does not interfere with the reguiar operation lof the camera, and the rexposed portions of the attachment may readily be removed from the camera or placed thereon at any time.

A preferred form of the invention is embodied in a motion picture `camera Vhaving the usual lens and having a film driving mechanism and a shutter driving mechanism therein whereby portions of the film in the camera may be successively exposed through the lens in the Well kno-wn manner. The present attachment comprises a movably mounted shaft support Within rthe camera, a shaft, yand means on the shaft adapted to operably connect the shaft to a drive element of the camera thereby to effect rotation of the shaft. The shaft projects through the front Wall of the camera in position to receive a removable fade-out disc which when mounted on the shaft extends in front of the lens opening of the cam era in position to block the iield of View through the lens. The disc itself may be provided with any suitable means for gradually blocking out the field of view of the lens as the shaft is rotated. A manually operable device is connected with the movable shait support so as to move the support to bring tn shaft driving member into and out of engagement with the driving element of the camera mechanism.

Specifically it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel attachment of ti character described whereby a simpie finger movement by the operator serves to set the ia eout mechanism into operation.

It is also an object of the present invention to provide a novel means for connecting the attachment shaft to a driving element of the cam era mechanism, with the parts so arranged. as to make their assembiy possible Within the space available for the parts While at the same time being arranged so as to provide for smooth and easy operation.

The feat-1. es and advantages of the present invention vsill appear more fully as the description proceeds, reference being had to the accompanying drawings wherein a preferred form of the invention is shown It should be understood however that the drawings and description are illustrative only and are not to be considered` as limiting the invention except insofar as it is limited by the claims.

In the drawings:

i is a front view of a camera embodying the present invention;

Fie. 2 is a View in side elevation of the camera;

Fig. S is an enlarged fragmentary view in side elevation looking at the camera from the side opposite that shown in Fig. 2 with the cover plate removed;

Fig. e an enlarged fragmentary sectional iew taken on the line llof Fig, 3;

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary sectional View taken on the line 55 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 6 is a sectional View taken on the line -G of Fig. 3;

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary sectional View taken on the line l-'l' of Fig. 6;

Fig. 8 is a detailed View of the niovably supv ported shaf t in the camera;

Fig. 9 is a detailed end view of the movable shaft support;

Fig. l0 is a vertical section through the fadeout disc and its supporting shaft; and

Fig. l1 is a fragmentary sectional v iv taken substantially on the line il-ll of Fig. 10I the cap screw being removed.

Referring now in detail to the drawings, the camera shown in Fig. 1 comprises a casing E5 on the front of which there is mounted a lens le and on the top of which there is mounted a view finder il. The camera as shown has a spring mechanism indicated generally by the numeral i3 (see Fig. 3), which spring mechanism is housed in a part E53 ofthe casing. The; spring mechanism is of such nature as to communicate movement to a gear (see Fig. 3), which gear in turn drives a gear ii! that meshes with a pinion 22 fixed o-n a shaft 23. The shaft 23 also has fixed thereon a Worm 24 and a gear E5. The gear 25 in turn meshes with a spiral gear 25 which is xed on a shaft 2, the shaft 2l being operably connected to a film shuttle and a shutter shuttle 23 has a film driving finger 33.

The worm also drives a Worm gear 3i to rotate a shaft The shafVL has a worm 33 thereon meshing with the worm gear Si! which is part of a footage indicator indicated at 35 in Fig. 2.

The gear 2i meshes with a pinion 3G which serves to drive a governor mechanism for the camera indicated generally by the numeral ti. This governor mechanism forms no part of the present invention and will not be further described.

The present invention is embodied in a fadeout attachment which comprises a disc 38 which is adjustably mounted on a shaft 39 and is adapted to screw into a movablyvmounted stub shaft 49 (see Figs. '7 and 8). The stub shaft 49 as shown has a screw threaded socket 4l in one end thereof for receiving a screw threaded end 42 on the shaft 39. The shaft 40 is movably supported Within the camera casing and projects forwardly to the front of the camera casing through an aperture 43 in a casting 44 which is a part of the camera frame. The shaft 49 also extends through a front plate 45 which covers a portion of the front of the camera. This front plate has an aperture 46 and a screw threaded iboss 41 projecting forwardly around the aperture 45. Normally the aperture 46 is closed by a cap 4B that is threaded onto the boss 41. It will be note-'i from an inspection of Fig. 7 that the apertures 43 and 45 are su'lciently large to permit a substantial movement of the shaft 49 in a direction perpendicular to its axis. The aperture 43 is also large enough to permit insertion through it of a shaft supporting member 54 which must pass through the casting 44 in the assembly of the machine.

Means are provided whereby the shaft 49 may be moved in the direction perpendicular to its axis toward and away from the worm 24 which is a part of the driving mechanism of the camera. The shaft 40 has a worm gear 49 mounted upon the reduced end i! thereof and held in place by a screw 5 I. A supporting block 52 forming a part of the camera frame is provided with a bore 53 that rotatably receives a toothed member 54. The member 54 as shown best in Figs. 5, 7 and 9 has a series of gear teeth 55 formed in the periphery thereof and has an eccentrically located cylindrical aperture 55 therein. The aperture 56 is adapted to receive one end 49a of the shaft 49. An enlarged portion 4Gb on the shaft 49 iits in a recess 5l which is formed in one end of the member 54 around the aperture 5S. The member 54 has an annular fiange 58 at the same end as the recess 51, this annular flange being adapted to engage the adjacent surface of the block 52 to limit the movement of the member 54 into the opening 53. It will be evident that by rotation of the member 54 the shaft 40 and its worm gear 49 will be moved about the axis of the member 54. In one position the shaft 40 and the Worm gear 49 are moved upwardly so that the worm gear 49 engages the worm 24 of the drive mechanism of the camera. 'Ihis position is shown in dotted lines in Fig. 4 of the drawings. The Worm gear 49 in Fig. 4 is shown in full lines in its lowermost position.

In order to move the worm gear 49 into and out of driving engagement with the worm 24 I provide a rack 59 which is slidably mounted in an aperture 50 in the block 52. The rack 59 has a recess 6| in one end thereof to receive a spring 62 that is under compression between the rack 59 and a frame plate 63 of the camera. A pin 64 is fixed on the frame plate and extends toward the rack 59 to serve as a guide for the spring 62. The rack 59 abuts a side plate 65 of the camera and the side plate is provided with a screw threaded aperture 66 which opens on the end of the rack 59. In order to push the rack inwardly against the pressure of the spring 62 any suitable push rod may of course be shoved into the opening B6 to engage the rack. I prefer desired time.

to provide a Bowden wire construction 61 illustrated in Fig. 1 for the purpose of actuating the rack 59. This Bowden construction has a head portion 68 threaded into the aperture 66. At its outer end the Bowden Wire has a push button 69 and a finger piece 10. By pressing in on the push button 69 and holding the nger piece 19 the operator can apply pressure to the rack 59 by means of the inner plunger on the Bowden wire construction so as to cause the rack to turn the member 54 and bring the worm gear 49 up into engagement with the worm 24. When this is done the worm 24, if it is rotating, will drive the gear 49 at a relatively low rate of speed, thus effecting a slow turning of the shaft 49. The turning movement of the shaft 49 will also rotate the removable shaft extension 39 to cause the fade-out disc 38 to move in front of the lens I6.

As shown in the drawings, the fade-out disc 38 is provided with an aperture a which gradually decreases in cross section from a point 38h to a point 38a approximately diametrically opposite the point 38h. The aperture 38a is formed about the axis of the disc 38, its center line intersecting the lens axis so that as the disc is rotated the effect is gradually to reduce the exposure eld for the lens to zero. It will be understood that any other desired construction may be given to the fade-out disc 38 within the scope of the present invention.

The disc 38 is adapted to be adjustably mounted on the shaft 39 so that it may be set at the desired distance from the lens i6 or removed entirely from the shaft 39 and reversed thereon. For this purpose the disc 38 has a hub H that includes a lateral extension 72 which is exteriorly screw threaded and which is provided with a cone-shaped tip 13. The extension 12 is also slit longitudinally -by a series of slots 'I4 so that it may be compressed by threading a cap screw I5 thereon. The cap screw 15 has a cone-shaped portion 'I6 which is adapted to engage the coneshaped tip I3 of the extension 'I2 to compress the tip and thus clamp the extension 'l2 to the shaft 39.

From the foregoing description it is believed that the construction and the operation' of the camera attachment will be readily apparent to those skilled in this art. The operator of the camera may remove the shaft 39 and the disc 38 from the camera at any time and apply the cap 43 to cover the aperture 46. Similarly the Bowden wire device 67 can be removed. The

" aperture Sii for receiving this device needs no nect the attachment to the driving mechanism of the camera at the desired moment and for the Release of the button 59 will result in disconnecting the attachment from the driving mechanism at the end of any fade-out operation. After that the operator can reset the disc 3S on the shaft 39 so as to position the point 38h opposite the lens and leave the attachment in this position until such time as he desires to use it again; for example, at the end of the next sequence where he desires to use a fade-out ending.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

l. Means for removably supporting a fade-out device on a camera and for driving it from the operating mechanism of the camera, comprising in combination a rotatably mounted eccentric, a shaft rotatably mounted in said eccentric, driving means on said shaft operatively connected with a cooperating driving mechanism for rotating the shaft in one position of said eccentric and located out of operative engagement with said cooperating driving mechanism when the eccentric is rotated to a different position, manually movable means adapted by an operative stroke to rotate said eccentric into the position in which said driving means is operative for rotating said shaft, and yielding means normally opposing the operative stroke of said manually movable means and adapted when the manually movable means is release after an operative stroke to return the parts to their normal positions.

2. Means for removably supporting a fade-out device on a camera and for driving it from th'e operating mechanism of the camera, comprising in combination a rotatably mounted eccentric, a shaft rotatably mounted in said eccentric, driving means on said shaft operatively connected with a cooperating driving mechanism for rotating the shaft in one position of said eccentric and located out of operative engagement with said cooperating driving' mechanism when the eccentric is rotated to a different position, rack and pinion mechanism adapted by an operative stroke of the rack longitudinally to rotate said eccentric into the position in which said driving means is operative, and a spring normally opposing the longitudinal movement of th'e rack and adapted when the rack is released after an operative stroke to return the parts to their normal positions.

3. Means for removably supporting a fade-out device on a camera and for driving it from the operating mechanism of the camera, comprising in combination a rotatable cylindrical member, a shaft rotatably mounted in said cylindrical member longitudinally thereof in eccentric position therein a worm, a Worm gear xedly mounted on said shaft in position for engagement with said worm when said cylindrical member is given an operative movement in one direction so as to cause said shaft to rotate and adapted when the cylindrical member is given a reverse movement to move out of engagement with said worm, and manually movable means adapted by an operative stroke to rotate said cylindrical member into position for the engagement of said Worm gear with' said worm.

4. Means for removably supporting a fade-out device on a camera and for driving it from the operating mechanism of the camera, comprising in combination a rotatable cylindrical member, a shaft rotatably mounted in said cylindrical member longitudinally thereof in eccentric position therein a worm, a worm gear xedly mounted on said shaft in position for engagement with said Worm when said cylindrical member is given an operative movement in one direction so as to cause said shaft to rotate and adapted when the cylindrical member is given a reverse movement to move out of engagement With said worm, a pinion xedly mounted on said cylindrical member, a rack bar slidably mounted in position with its teeth engaging said pinion so as to cause the cylindrical member to rotate upon an operative movement of the rack bar longitudinally, and yielding means normally opposing the operative movement of the rack bar adapted when the rack bar is released after an operative stroke to return the parts to their normal positions.

5. Means for removably supporting a fade-out device on a camera and for driving it from the operating mechanism of the camera, comprising in combination a rotatable cylindrical member, a shaft rotatably mounted in said cylindrical member longitudinally thereof in eccentric position therein a worm, a worm gear xedly mounted on said shaft in position for engagement with said worm when said cylindrical member is given an operative movement in one direction so as to cause said shaft to rotate and adapted when the cylindrical member is given a reverse movement to move out of engagement with said worm, a pinion fixedly mounted on said cylindrical member, a rack bar slidably mounted in position with its teeth engaging said pinion so as to cause the cylindrical member to rotate upon an operative movement of the rack bar longitudinally, yielding means normally opposing the operative movement of the rack bar adapted when the rack bar is released after an operative stroke to return the parts to their normal positions, and means for releasably connecting a Bowden-wire operating device in position opposite to the end of said rack bar for giving the rack bar an operative longitudinal movement.

PHILMORE F. SPERRY. PHILIP F. BRISKIN. JACK BRISKIN. 

